The field of this invention relates to dental equipment and more particularly to an appliance which is to be used by a dentist to assist in the performing of certain dental procedures.
The use of a gingival retraction cord has long been known in the dental field. A typical gingival retraction cord is about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, is similar to a conventional string and is utilized by the dentist by being wrapped around the base of a tooth located within the alveolar. It is common for the cord to contain some type of a medicament and/or astringent. As the cord is left temporarily on the tooth, the medicament and/or astringent is released from the cord and applied directly to the gum area adjacent to the tooth. Typically, these types of cords are applied to retract the gingival so as to make it easier for the dentist to perform certain procedures such as installing crowns or bridges. Also, such cords can be a big help in assisting of healing of the gingival.
In the past, it has been common to make cord in a large quantity, immerse it in a quantity of the liquid medicament, remove the cord from the liquid medicament, dry the cord, divide the cord into desired lengths which are then to be placed within an appropriate container to be sold to the dentist.
Some people are sensitive to certain medication and if a greater amount of medication is applied to that particular individual, that individual could have an undesirable reaction. The immersing of a gingival retraction cord in a medicinal solution has not been closely controlled so as to avoid any undesirable reaction. There has always been, in a given length of cord, some areas of diminished amount of medicine and other areas of significantly increased amounts of medicine. Precise impregnation to achieve even distribution of the medicine throughout the cord has just not been obtainable in the prior art.
There is a need to construct a device which will impregnate a cord with a medicinal solution with this impregnation being substantially even throughout the entire length of the cord so that some areas of the cord will not have significantly increased amounts of medication and other areas of the cord have diminished amounts of medication.